The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun an open inquiry against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and his family for alleged violations of foreign exchange laws in operating four bank accounts at a Swiss private bank in Singapore.

“We received an input from Singapore’s financial intelligence unit about four accounts opened in 2010 in Bank Julius and Baer Company Ltd. Following this, we made certain enquiries with the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI informed us that it did not have any information on the existence of these four accounts,” said an ED source.

“The four accounts are under the name of Naveen Jindal, his wife, daughter and son. We are getting details of the funds in the accounts. Under the legalised remittance scheme a certain amount can be remitted outside India each year, but in this case, the contravention of foreign exchange laws is that RBI was not informed about the four accounts,” said the source.

A statement issued by a spokesperson for Jindal Steel and Power Limited read: “We wish to state that we have not received any notice or information from ED in this regard.” The spokesperson clarified that, nevertheless, “ RBI policy allows the resident individuals to remit funds outside India up to certain amount each year. The policy provides the framework of such remittances and the compliance to be done by the resident individuals.”

The statement said there had been no contravention of Para A-13 of an RBI Master Circular No. 01/2010-11 dated July 1, 2010 with regard to the liberalised remittance scheme. “Therefore, in keeping with the terms of the said scheme… Naveen Jindal and other family members have remitted the amounts outside India through Barclays Bank, the Authorized dealer of RBI,” the statement read.